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Friday, 13 April 2012

The Starship Aprilis: Lepus Lupus

This blogpost is part of the A to Z Challenge which begins on April 1st. The goal is to post every day (except Sunday) in the month of April. Each blogpost will be associated with a letter of the alphabet. Check the A to Z Challenge page for more information.

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The Starship Aprilis was a common and unremarkable transport ship built on Earth, back when humans were still bipedal and mostly organic creatures. The ship travelled between the many human colonies that were established at the time throughout the galaxy and served as both a cargo carrier and passenger transporter.

The ship finally met its end when it was stuck in a crushing gravity field off of Taurus Baqara C, which killed all who were aboard and destroyed all the on-board data and most importantly, the ship’s log. Of the ship only a small section survived, which was discovered quite recently several million light years away, in a slow decaying orbit around a black hole.

The remains of the ship offers no clue as to what really happened to consign the ship to its fate. The only document that could be salvaged from the remains is a travelogue, believed to be written by an unknown crewmember. The travelogue offers a glimpse of what life was like for a traveller of the stars in those heady days, thousands and thousands of years ago. Most importantly, it gives us a glimpse of many different planets and what they were like during the time.

The following entries are excerpts from the travelogue. May you find amusement and enjoyment from reading them.

Lepus Lupus is one of human’s furthest settlements away from Earth. It lies on one of outer arms of the galaxy’s spiral, furthest away from Earth, and any other colony, for that matter.

When the first colonists proposed to set up camp here, many wondered the wisdom of doing so due to the difficulty of Earth’s astromilitary arriving on time if anything untoward would happen.

But those early settlers were a stubborn lot and they set up their colony anyway. At first Earth refused to offer protection and classed Lepus Lupus as a renegade colony, effectively leaving them exposed and alone.

Many on Earth believed it wouldn’t be long until an alien species would turn up knocking on Lepus Lupus’ front door. If the colonists were lucky, the aliens would not be hostile.

It so turns out that after several years (Earth time), aliens did come calling. These were the Qastas, an advanced race, with technology way beyond human understanding. The colonists were scared of course, but the Qastas saw that they were here all alone without help. The Qastas provided aid in terms of food and technology and even placed Lepus Lupus under their protection.

The Qastas are a humanoid race. They possess the head of a hare placed on the body of what humans would call a “werewolf”. The colonists were so grateful for the Qastas’ help that they decided to name their colony after the Qastas. Hence, Lepus Lupus.